Squak Mountain's East Ridge Trail was hit hard by the Nov '24 bomb cyclone. Many large trees were downed across the trail, together with giant root-balls sitting on the tread. Thanks to hard work by WTA volunteers and park staff, East Ridge Trail is now in fantastic shape compared to what it looked like half a year ago.
All the big logs are cut out, the root balls are winched off of the trail, and reroutes go around or through the various craters. I did encounter several small logs (<6") that fell more recently, each of which was simple to clamber over or under.
Notwithstanding the blowdown, there are a number of beautiful large trees standing on this part of Squak, including many Douglas-firs and cedars in the range of 2.5' to 4' and one 5' diameter.
At 1,500'+, there's a hard-to-find intersection with a short trail that heads south to Southeast Peak. (This trail appears on Gaia but not my Green Trails map.) This trail to Southeast Peak is obliterated by extreme blow-down. No trailwork or logging has occurred here yet since the Nov '24 bomb cyclone.
I headed that way anyway -- i.e., south off of the East Ridge Trail, heading toward Southeast Peak -- slowly progressing over and under many dozens of logs. It took me an hour of difficult but fun bushwacking to get to the peak and another hour to get back to the East Ridge Trail. I wouldn't have missed this for anything!
Aside from this detour, the East Ridge Trail is in fine shape.
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